


The Alteration

by Schattenschreiberin



Category: Henry Stickmin Series (Video Games), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Don't read if you don't like crossovers, I just don't want to spoil anything, M/M, More fandom tags to be added, Multi, Post-Triple Threat Ending | TT (Henry Stickmin), more character tags to be added - Freeform, toppat clan
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28312452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schattenschreiberin/pseuds/Schattenschreiberin
Summary: When a mission goes wrong, Triple Threat falls apart.The only way to reunite would be to turn back the clock but going back in time is impossible.Until an alternate timeline appears. If everything goes right Triple Threat should come back together there, right?Right.If it wasn’t for the alterations that make this timeline the slightest bit different from all the others.New friends and foes in familiar places and old friends and foes in unusual places.
Relationships: Charles Calvin & Ellie Rose & Henry Stickmin
Comments: 22
Kudos: 52





	1. The end of Triple Threat

**Author's Note:**

> This was an idea for an ask-blog on tumblr.   
> But I didn't use it for that since my experiences with relying on people writing me comments (or send in asks in this case) hasn't been that good. Did it once and nobody cared, even the person that encouraged me to do it in the first place.
> 
> Might still turn it into one if it gets enough attention here, though...
> 
> Have fun reading.

His greatest plan had always been to crash his helicopter into… almost anything.

He did it once, shocking both Ellie and Henry, but they got away with a few scratches because he was controlling the crash, as much as you can control a helicopter making contact with a brick wall.

This… was different.

There was a very good reason why he had been staying back, waiting for Ellie or Henry signaling that it was safe or that they needed a quick and risky pickup. Several minutes of radio silence after a very apparent gunfight and chase lead him to his decision to call back up in right now, Rupert was sitting on hot coals since they left, but he would not wait for them to arrive. It was most likely not safe to fly into the small Toppat-bases’ airspace, and most likely turned into definitely very quickly after he came close to the decrepit looking building.

He had to bail out of the chopper, putting him where he was now, lying on the roof, covering his head from any shrapnel that might reach his position. The scent of smoldering fabric caused him to roll onto his back before getting up to inspect the damages and take inventory.

Helicopter, burning pile of metal several storeys beneath him.

Clothes, a bit singed but other than that no big damages.

Headset, only static and several dents.

Handgun, still in its place.

Overall wellbeing, not dead, good enough for now. Tomorrow his body would be covered in black and blue bruises, but he didn’t seem to have broken any bones or hit his head too hard.

Ducking behind the entrance to the roof he tried to contact his teammates again. With his own headset now damaged it was even less likely to catch something, but he had to find out where they were.

“Come on… Henry? Ellie? Come in. I really need to find you guys. Chopper kinda blew up on me…” he peeked around the corner while pressing one hand against his headset in hopes of hearing something out of the static and crackling. The Toppats would check the roof at some point…

“… ar…s”

“Henry?”

The ex-thiefs’ voice was slightly raspy from lack of use, usually Ellie was the one doing the talking during their missions and the most they got out of Henry was approving hums or sounds of disagreement. That, combined with the static, made it even harder for Charles to understand what his friend was saying.

“I’m here, buddy. On the roof. Where are you guys? Is Ellies’ earpiece busted?”

There was loud crackling, maybe a heavy sigh on Henrys’ side. “…o… …s a trap…”

“Well that’s not a surprise… You guys okay?”

It was silent again. Charles grew more and more worried with every passing second “Henry? Are you still there?”

“…lie is dead… …ad, Char…”

The young pilot felt his blood run cold. Ellie? Dead? Those words simply didn’t make sense in the same sentence. Ellie was like a tank, almost unstoppable, the biggest threat out of all of them. She couldn’t just die…

His back hit the rough, overgrown wall behind him, sliding down, vines ripping and leaves rustling until he was sitting on the ground, blankly staring at the ground. He could still hear Henry, but his brain didn’t even try anymore to piece together what was said. Another one of his friends gone just like that? Taken down by the Toppats.

Death wasn’t something unfamiliar to Charles, he was in the military after all, but he was never so close to it. And it hadn’t hit people that were so close to him personally.

The past two years were always seeing Henry and Ellie first thing in the morning, going on missions with them and spending their free time with each other and some of the other soldiers and agents. How were they supposed to do any of that without Ellie?

Another thought finally snapped him out of it.

How was he supposed to do any of it without Ellie _and_ Henry?

This was the moment a Toppat member made the mistake to check the roof. He ended up so close to the pilot that the end of his rifle almost knocked the damaged headset off. Charles’ turned his head so fast he almost felt whiplash. The Toppat said something that was most likely meant to taunt him or make fun of him, cowering on the roof with tears streaming down his face.

His blood went from feeling like he had ice coursing through his veins to boiling with rage. One hand shot up to grab the rifle, pushing it to the side, the bullet grazing his shoulder. With the other hand he pulled his own gun out of its holster, the bullet hitting the other man between the eyes.

He watched his opposite fall to the ground, the dark red top hat rolling a few inches away before settling. Still holding the end of the rifle, Charles got back on his feet, holstering his gun before straightening his headset.

“…arles!”

The pilot was pretty sure that he heard his friends’ voice crack and he hoped that, if Henry was hiding right now, he didn’t give away his position. He understood his worry. The shot from the rifle had been right next to his mic.

“I’m fine… Where are you?”

“…t out. …eet outside”

“I am not leaving without you and Ellie”, he checked how many shots he had left with the Toppats’ rifle before passing the body to enter the stairway “Where are you?”

He could hear the other man growl in frustration before he finally answered “…ound floor. Storage”

Charles nodded, more to himself than anybody else. Storage shouldn’t be hard to find. But first things first. To the ground floor.

After two flights of stairs the first toppats got in his way.

He quickly bust through the door to the current floor, the fourth if he didn’t miscount, and ran down the hallway. Halfway he turned back towards the five pursuing criminals. Two shots from his rifle later the remaining three had to catch themselves after almost stumbling over their clanmates’ bodies.

Charles was already around the corner, hopefully heading towards another stairway or some other way to get down.

There was in fact another stairway. Bullets dug themselves into the door after he slammed it shut behind him. There were at least seven members behind him. One lone Toppat was unlucky enough to stand in his way on the stairs. Maybe the guy found solace in the fact that he actually hit Charles before slumping against the wall. The pilot didn’t manage a headshot this time, the sudden pain in his side was too distracting to pull the fourth one in a row. He didn’t slow down much though. Adrenaline kept him going, and with one hand pressing on the bullet wound he finally sprinted down the halls on the ground floor.

Somewhere around here…

Shouting let him skid to a stop and turn around. He was thrown back against the wall when a bullet hit his shoulder. It was hard to resist the urge to drop his weapon, fighting the instinct to immediately try to stop the bleeding. There were worse places to get hit.

But aiming was now a problem. He definitely hit someone with the last shots from the rifle before he bolted again, doing his best not to fall when another shot grazed his leg. Whoever he shot, it seemed to have stopped them for at least a few moments.

The next door he came across was labeled as ‘Storage’.

Relieved and exhausted he quickly shut it behind him before barricading it by tipping over a nearby shelf.

In the silence of the spacious room all he could hear at first were his own ragged breath and almost painful heartbeat. Henry said they were around here… “Henry?”

From his point of view, he could only see stacks of wooden crates, a few more shelfs and a shutter, the size of a garage door, on the other end of the room. And every surface was riddled with bullet holes or dents. Spots of partially dried blood on the ground, bloody footprints leading towards the now barricaded door.

No immediate signs of his friends. Only static from his headphones.

The longer he stood still the more he could feel the pain from various parts of his body, mainly his side and shoulder, so he quickly continued to walk forward, peeking around shelfs and stacks of various sizes. It was only a few seconds later when he caught sight of a big red spot on a wall behind a few crates. The blood had been smeared downwards like someone was slammed into the wall and then slid down to the floor. Charles tried to swallow around the big lump he felt in his throat. That… could’ve been anyone…

After getting closer and being able to see into the small space between the boxes and the wall he had his fears confirmed.

Ellie was on the floor, her body and face mostly covered by her own and Henrys’ jackets. The fabric was soaked with blood in many spots, especially where it hung down onto the floor, making contact with the pool of blood. Head resting in her friends’ lap, her bright red hair a stark contrast to Henrys’ dark blue sweatshirt and black jeans.

The ex-thief had one hand resting on the fiery strands, his own silver hair even messier than usual, matted with blood from a wound close to his right temple. Rips and several dark spots in his clothes indicating more injuries.

“H-henry?” No. They had just talked a few minutes ago. He had come here as fast as possible. Charles stumbled a few more steps before falling to his knees next to his friends. The sound of the rifle hitting the ground was unnaturally loud in his ears when he reached out to cup Henrys’ face with trembling hands. His fingers left smears of his own blood on pale skin. “No… please. Don’t make me loose both of you…”, his vision went blurry, hot tears dripping from his chin “N-nobody can take you guys… just out like that…”

After what felt like an eternity Henry groaned and his eyes fluttered open. And Charles never thought he would be happy hearing his friend being in pain. He hated it. But for now, he had to resist the urge to pull Henry into a tight hug, it would probably do more damage than give comfort to any of them.

“… Charles?” his voice sounded hoarse and strained but his lips slowly twitched in a small relieved smile.

The pilot nodded and managed something between a laugh and a choked sob “Sorry for taking so long”

“Sorry… for passing out”, Henry raised his hand to feel for the wound on his head “just too much…”

Charles assumed he had a concussion but before he could come up with any plans to deal with that, they could her gunfire from outside. It even sounded like a tank was out there. He couldn’t help but grin “Sounds like our backup is here” Now they only needed to get out there.

A little bit calmer now he took another look at his teammates’ injuries. Now it was hard to tell if he was almost passing out from blood loss or his headwound. He had taken a direct shot to his knee, clearly not able to walk on his own. Maybe…

“Can you stand?” his concerned frown deepened as Henry nodded and grit his teeth when he tried to stand up. Charles pulled him up carefully till he was on his feet again. This wasn’t going to work…

He looked down at Ellies body. He didn’t want to leave her behind… His own injuries weren’t too bad right now, he would be able to carry her… But the rational part of his brain took over, Ellie was already gone, and Henry was in bad shape. Right now, Henry was highest priority, screw the actual goal of the mission. They could get the files after this was over.

The smaller male protested when Charles scooped him up to carry him bridal style, but the pilot was having none of it. His shoulder and leg protested under the added weight. The shutter was his best bet, so he started to make his way towards it. After a few steps though he stopped and looked back at Ellie. Somehow… this still didn’t feel real…

The explosion that bust open the door and smashed his barricade into a million pieces was pretty real though. He didn’t waste much more time, seeing a red light among the dust clouds was enough to send him running.

They just needed to get outside.

The first alarming thing was losing contact with Charles.

The second was seeing the burning remains of the Black Hawk.

And Rupert did not need a third.

They had already been to one funeral, Triple Threat wouldn’t dare to add even one more to that. At least that was what he was hoping while taking care of the surprisingly small amount of Toppats.

Suddenly there was an explosion inside the building, then a second one, causing a smaller part of the complex to partially collapse.

Well, that could’ve only been caused by more Toppats or Henry and one of his various gadgets.

He wasn’t close to it, only came to check after the clanmembers he was dealing with were either taken out or restrained. The situation seemed already been sorted when he rounded the corner. No more gunfire, a few more Toppats on the grounds or ready to be brought to the nearest prison.

But there was also their two medics working between rubble and pieces of smashed crates. Rupert walked over to them but stopped dead in his tracks when two stretchers were picked up and quickly carried towards one of the helicopters they had called in after taking out any automated targeting systems and weapons that were strong enough to destroy an aircraft.

He couldn’t- No, he didn’t want to believe his eyes. Both of them? But they weren’t dead, otherwise the medics wouldn’t be rushing like that.

…

Where was- Someone calling his name pulled his attention to two soldiers standing by a wall, working to remove the rubble. This wasn’t good…

Mission: Retrieve stolen documents from Toppat Splintergroup

Mission status: Completed

Assigned Commanders: C. Calvin

H. Stickmin

E. Rose

R. Price

J. July

Location: [Redacted]

Report: 2130 Departure TT from [Redacted]

2147 Arrival at Target-Location (TT)

2229 Call for backup from C. Calvin

2236 Departure R. Price and J. July from [Redacted]

2240 Complete loss of Radio contact with TT

2259 Arrival at Target-Location (R. Price)

2310 Arrival at Target-Location (J. July)

2345 Area officially secured

0203 All units returned to [Redacted]

Number of Arrests: 13

Number of Casualties: 11 (Opponent)

1 (Own forces)

General Galeforce looked down at the report on his desk.

Photos of Charles’ shot down helicopter and the collapsed building accompanied it, alongside a map, marking the positions of the missions’ casualties. Autopsy- and regular medical reports in combination with the bloody fingerprints on a rifle found under the rubble suggested that six of them were caused by Charles, four by Ellie and Henry, only one dying in the finishing battle. There had been over ten more arrests that weren’t included in the main missions’ report, about 8 more casualties. 

He sighed and filed the reports away, leaving only four pieces of paper.

Two of them medical- and two autopsy reports. Two of the papers held the same name. Dr. Vinschpinsilstien had assured him that there would be no need for another autopsy. He would live.

But Galeforce couldn’t imagine what he would do after waking up.

This was the beginning of a completely new story, and as he put the files away, he decided to do his best to ensure Triple Threat would never be forgotten.


	2. The end of Triple Threat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why does this chapter have the same title as the first one? Because we are still in the same timeline
> 
> Sven deserves more credit for his work.

When they received the very first call from Henry and Ellie after they escaped from the wall the general was honestly relieved.

The Toppats were in the midst of preparing their rocket launch and had successfully warded off any forces the government had sent in. Whoever had taken the lead after Reginald Copperbottom and his Right Hand Man had been arrested, they weren’t bad at their job.

With Henry already having taken the Toppats down once and the information the government had about Ellie Rose, Galeforce was confident that they and Charles could stop the launch. And they did. Sending most of the Toppats to the Wall in the process. While some managed to escape, the mission was still a success and Triple Threat was made an official covert ops team.

They weren’t perfect of course.

Henry still occasionally fell back on taking a little detour to snatch some shiny things from the enemy, which sometimes created useful distractions so Ellie could accomplish the missions’ goal faster and sometimes almost got him killed. One time, Ellie almost blew up an entire warehouse by accident. Charles had crashed his helicopter once. They were chaotic, unpredictable and a threat to everyone who wasn’t on their side. And Charles kept his friends on the right side.

But all the while the Toppats were still operating in the background, trying to rebuild, occasionally being ‘visited’ by Triple Threat. The Toppats’ threat level was quite low though. At least for most of the little splinter groups.

One of them was quite… violent.

The Toppats were criminals but they usually didn’t kill people unless they were standing in their way. They were thieves, not murderess, but this group… They did all they could to be seen as a bigger threat, all they could to get a reaction from Ellie, Henry or Charles. The group wanted revenge, for taking down the airship, for ruining the rocket launch and getting a big portion of the Toppat Clan behind the bars of the most infamous prison.

It was a known fact.

It was still a shock to hear what happened when the group managed to break into a government facility and steal the plans for the rocket that had been confiscated almost two years prior. It triggered a reaction. First from Rupert Price and then from Triple Threat when they came back from their latest mission. The Toppats had managed to make it personal and Galeforce knew, if he didn’t send them officially and with proper backup, the four of them would’ve gone on their own. Dave had been important to all of them after all.

As soon as the splinter groups’ location was found, Triple Threat was sent in to retrieve or destroy the rocket plans. Rupert and June were chosen as the commanders of the back up forces.

They barely knew what they were dealing with. What kind of weapons had the group at their disposal? How many members? Were some of the recently escaped Toppats already part of it?

When Charles called for backup, Rupert and June made their way over as fast as possible. Aside from being eager to get to deal with the Toppats personally there was a good portion of worry mixed in. If Triple Threat needed help so soon something was very wrong.

When June and Rupert reported back, being the only higher ups who were able to give reports, their faces were pale.

The rocket plans had been found, all toppats were either arrested or dead, so the mission was officially deemed as successful.

But General Galeforce couldn’t help but call it a disaster. The goal was accomplished but was it really worth it? As he paid respect and watched two coffins getting lowered into their graves he thought, no. It wasn’t. This had been a waste…

He wasn’t surprised when he saw the raven-haired soldier stand outside the hospital room.

Rupert saluted when he noticed the general approaching him. Galeforce nodded as a greeting “I assume you already heard”

“Yeah…”, the younger man scratched his neck and looked at the closed door “Not that I could actually see him. No family and not really friends either… just wanted to know how he is”

“Understandable” The General knocked on the door and then crossed his arms behind his back while he waited for the doctor to answer.

It took Dr. Vinschpinsilstien a few moments to open the door. She acknowledged both men with the same greeting Galeforce had given.

Rupert tried to peek around or between her and Galeforce when the general entered the room, but the blond woman closed the door in his face after a curt “Alive” He sighed. He didn’t really expect anything else. After a look at the clock he decided to wait. Still a few hours till he was back on duty. Maybe the general would share something when he came back out.

The room was only dimly lit, the curtains were drawn letting little to no sunlight in. The screens of the heart monitor and other machines gave off a little bit of light. The biggest light source was a lamp on the side table.

He was sitting hunched over in the bed, hugging himself with his fingers digging in his sides. Dr. V sighed before carefully tugging his hands away from his sides “Don’t”

“Tsk…” he pulled away from her but clutched the blanket in his lap instead.

It wasn’t a new or uncommon thing to see a member of Triple Threat wrapped in bandages. Usually they had a look of ‘Worth it’ or ‘Just a scratch, don’t worry’ on their faces. Not this time. When the general stood at his bedside, he raised his head. One of his eyes was still covered by bandages and he looked like he was trying his hardest not to cry.

“How are you feeling, Henry?”

The young man looked down at his hands again, seemingly contemplating if he wanted or even could answer this question. He let go of the blanket and slowly signed “Dead” How was he supposed to feel after all of this? Charles and Ellie were the two most important people in his life. He trusted them more than he ever trusted anyone, even his own family. Loosing both of them at once… Henry just didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want to talk about his friends now, he didn’t want to talk at all and was happy to know that the general and Dr. V knew enough sign language to understand his questions.

“June? Rupert?”

“They’re fine. There were no more fatal injuries on our side”, Henry sighed relieved and Galeforce added “Rupert is waiting outside. We can call him in if you want”

He shook his head “Toppats?”

“We are confident that all members off the group are behind bars now. Those who are still alive”

There was a small, satisfied grin on his face, but it quickly faded. He started to sign, stopped midway, and absentmindedly stared at his knee. He knew had to have been out for quite some time… but aside from the most important Dr. V hadn’t really told him all the things that had happened. “Funeral?”

“It was yesterday”, the general gently placed a hand on the younger mans’ shoulder when his head dropped “I’m sorry. We couldn’t wait for you to wake up”

Henry took a shaky breath before signing “At least I don’t have to wear that uniform again”

A few days later the first snow was falling.

Rupert had to brush off some snow from his uniform before entering the hospital. The twins had decided to try and cheer him up by starting a snowball fight. That… didn’t really work. Deep down he appreciated them trying, but on the surface… he was just annoyed. It was cold and wet, and it would take a little while longer until he could go back to his own apartment. For now, he had to meet up with June who was already waiting in front of Henrys’ room.

“I thought I was late”

“You are”, she gave a weak smile “But I think Dr. V is still lecturing him about resting and calling if he needs her”

“Last time I checked he’d rather die of a cold than call a doctor”

The two soldiers looked at the closed door in silence for a few seconds before the blond sighed “We should really check on him from time to time…” Rupert just nodded.

They had to wait for another five minutes until the door finally opened.

“Henry” June smiled warmly before signing “Good to see you”

The ex-thief still needed one crutch to walk but he could sign a “You too” before looking back at Dr. V who was giving a bag to Rupert to carry. “Can carry myself” Two of those signs technically needed both hands but it was clear anyway. “You concentrate on walking. These two are picking you up for a reason”, she paused for a moment “With cybernetics I could let you leave alone but not like this in this kind of weather”

A shadow of an indescribable emotion flashed across Henrys’ face before he quickly signed “Rather loose a limb” which almost made him fall because he let go of the crutch to properly sign his statement. He had already decided to give up his eyesight, he could wait till his leg properly healed on its own.

Dr. V nodded “I will call and remind you to come for checkup in two weeks”

June made a mental note to also remember that for her friend while she helped Henry stay upright. At least she considered Henry her friend. Ellie had definitely been her friend.

“You two need help?” Henry shook his head at Rupert. He could do this on his own. Mostly.

They said goodbye to the doctor before making their way down the corridor, June to Henrys’ left and Rupert to his right. The soldiers weren’t crowding him but close enough to help in case he needed it. He appreciated that. He hated nothing more than being pitied and he had seen that look on quite a few faces so far. Poor covert ops agent losing his team and half his eyesight. Dr. V, the general, Rupert and June were just honestly concerned.

He sighed in relief when he finally got to sit down in Junes’ car.

“Do you guys need anything from the store?” she watched him in the rear mirror and waited for his signing while Rupert searched for his phone to see if he had anything noted down. Managing those kinds of things was not really his strong suit. Dave had done that for him…

Henry thought for a moment.

He knew that the Calvins had been in their… his apartment to get Charles’ things and Ms. Calvin had texted him that she had taken care off the food that had gone bad, so he definitely needed something to eat… He nodded and pulled out a notepad from his bag to make a list while they drove to the store.

After parking the car June caught a glance at the list on Ruperts’ phone “Good god… Is that how you’ve been eating?” “I still mostly eat at the cafeteria…”

Henry was still pondering over his own list. He couldn’t just go to the cafeteria now… and he wasn’t in the mood for ‘complex’ recipes, but he knew he shouldn’t live of instant noodles and the like… “You still need a moment, Henry?” June had her bag on her lap and just pulled out her wallet, she was ready to go and Henry didn’t want to waste her time. He crossed something from his list and then signed “Ready” Then he paused and rubbed his knee. Walking, or bending it in any way, wasn’t the most pleasant feeling right now…

“I’ll take two dollars for carrying your groceries, Stickmin” Rupert grinned and held his hand out.

He sighed before placing list and money in Ruperts’ hand “Thank you”

While the two soldiers were gone Henry just stared out of the window, watching the still falling snow.

This was worse… than every other ending he ever experienced…

Valiant Hero came close but there he could take solace in the fact that Ellie was most likely alive. Somewhere.

Now they were both gone… And he couldn’t even go back and choose something else. There had been no other choices. He had lived a normal life for almost two years. He was willing to go all the way back to the Hub and relive everything up to their second to last mission. To tell Dave to call in sick, to tell Ellie that they should take another route, just to do something to save them!

But he couldn’t.

He closed his eyes and after a moment he stood in front of the big screen, the golden “MISSION COMPLETE” almost taking up the whole thing. The white void around him felt colder than ever before. The screen was cracked in the bottom left corner. Where he had slammed his fist on “Retry” and “Map” uncountable times. Even after shards of glass were digging deeper and deeper into his flesh with every hit.

It was like the blow to the head had affected this weird ability of his. Or maybe it was the loss of his left eye. He doubted that cybernetics would be able to fix it. They reminded him too much off the Revenged-Ending anyway. There was no way he would allow these things in his body again.

He let his fingers trace one of the cracks. Through it he could see something that looked like TV-static. Occasionally there were flashes of red, green, and blue, alongside with waves of heat. Maybe… this would heal too? He just needed to be patient. Not exactly one of his strengths, but he could do it. He had to wait for his leg to heal too, so he could do this as well.

“Henry?” Someone tapping on his shoulder snapped him out of it. At first, he was disoriented. They weren’t at the store anymore. He could see his apartment building. Had time sped up while he was staring at the screen? June rested her arm on the back of her seat “Are you alright” He wanted to shake his head, nothing was alright, but he just shrugged instead, not wanting to worry her too much.

It took them a few minutes to reach his apartment. It felt cold and empty, despite all furniture and things like framed pictures still being there. The only room that was empty was Charles’ and he couldn’t even see that from the front door. Rupert carried the grocery bag into the kitchen and placed it on the counter “You need help to put them away?” Henry shook his head and sat down at the small table. There was a mark from when Ellie had slammed her combat knife into the table after hearing that they might not be the ones to go on the Toppat-Mission. He rubbed his left eye, it slightly hurt, maybe it was just the beginnings of a headache. June entered the room with a cardboard box and carefully placed it on the table, covering the knife-mark. “Here are Charles’ and Ellies’ things. At least the ones they had one them…”, she let her hand rest one the box “I… cleaned them up as best as I could. Didn’t repair anything though. You guys’ wills said ‘no matter what condition they might be in’…”

Henry smiled and looked from her to Rupert “Thank you” They both looked surprised at the sound of his voice. He had barely talked to them before the mission and to no one since then. He went right back to signing though. The equivalent to “I’d like to be alone now” The two nodded and left with a reminder to call or text if he needed anything.

He waited until he heard the door close before he opened the box. On top were two envelopes, seals broken but paper neatly put back. The names “Ellie Rose” and “Charles Calvin” were written on the outside. He remembered the evening these wills were written. It wasn’t even that long ago… He smiled at the last lines “ _In case we all bite the dust together all money and belongings are going to charity_ ” It had been Charles’ idea.

He put the documents back and the envelopes aside to pick up the first item.

It was a silver bracelet with an engraved rose, tiny green stones embedded into the metal. An elongated dent near the engraving. It had deflected one of the many bullets… Charles and Henry had it made specifically for Ellie for her birthday last year. She only took it off on rare occasions.

Carefully he placed the bracelet on top of Ellies’ will before reaching into the box again, pulling out a red Headset. The mic was only dangling on its wires, there were a lot of dents and scratches all over the headphones. Henry could hardly remember any time where Charles wasn’t wearing these. They were either on his head or hung around his neck. He did remember how sad the pilot had been when he had to replace the previous pair after it had been ripped off his head in a struggle with a group of thugs and smashed to bits. When Ellie wrote them in her will she said _“I want what makes you our Charles. And those things are like permanently attached you”_

And Henry had added Charles’ jacket to that. It was the next item in the box. Faint dark spots were still visible on the army-green fabric. He wondered how much of it was Charles’ and how much was his own… There were a few holes, the back was slightly singed but other than that it was still fine…

Next were Ellies’ black boots. They reached mid-calf and were great for climbing and kicking ass, according to Ellie. Even they had bullet holes. Attempts to slow her down, but they only made her angrier and wilder. The only thing stopping Ellie was running out of bullets and room to fight. And a shot to the head.

The last item was a combat knife. They must’ve found it somewhere beneath the rubble.

Henry looked at the assortment of his friends’ belongings. It wasn’t everything though… Everything in Ellies' room was now his. Her bank account and her motorcycle. He wanted none of it.

He struggled a little to get up and walk into Charles’ room. It was almost completely empty. Only two boxes were left. His videogame console and all his games. The hoodies Ellie and Henry loved to steal because they were so comfy.

_“Does this mean you guys are going to stop stealing them now?” “Never!”_

Henry sat down to stretch out his leg and leaned his back against the wall. Hugging a folded red hoddie to his chest he looked up at the stars the pilot had painted onto his ceiling. They went stargazing a lot…

He had never cried when he was in the hospital. Now nobody was around who could see him break down and sob into Charles’ hoodie until he fell asleep.


	3. The end of Triple Threat

June texted him almost every day at least a “Good morning” and a “Sleep well”. Rupert didn’t text as much. When the twins, or June, dragged him out to go do something and they went to get food afterwards he would text Henry and ask if he wanted something too.

Most times he didn’t.

He couldn’t remember the last time he slept well.

At least his leg was getting better and he didn’t have so much trouble with his depth perception.

There were only two incidents since he got out of the hospital.

The first came in the mail the day after he got home.

The senders’ address was fake, he could faintly see the logo of the Toppat-Clan on the letterhead and the letter itself was written in Swedish. It took him a little while to translate everything. Someone was offering their condolences. He cocked his head. Toppats wouldn’t be able to write a letter like this from prison. The only Swedish Toppat he knew was Sven and as far as he knew Sven wasn’t in prison _anymore_. Petrov was very upset about the fact that he lost a leader of the Toppat Clan.

Sven was probably part of the quiet splinter group by now.

But it wouldn’t really make sense for him to send Henry his condolences. He most likely didn’t approve of how it happened, but in this timeline, they weren’t on the best terms. With Henry and Ellie ruining his plans and sending him to the Wall… Which was something they kind of regretted in hindsight after hearing what they missed out on while they were imprisoned there themselves…

The only person who would make a little bit of sense was… Burt.

He could speak Swedish, Henry was pretty sure of that. He was almost always on Svens’ side and was probably also not happy about what happened.

He pondered about it for a few hours but then decided to just let it rest. Not that he could go and ask Burt. But who knows, maybe they would run into each other one day. Henry would try to remember to try and ask and thank him for the letter.

The other incident took place a week later and wasn’t as pleasant.

Rupert had decided to text him and asked if he wanted to visit the cemetery with him. He probably should visit his friends’ graves at some point, so he wrote a short answer and they planned for Rupert to pick him up an hour later. About 50 minutes passed before someone rang the doorbell. It wasn’t Rupert. And seeing that shade of red on someone else than Ellie made him tense up.

“Stickmin, right?” The mans’ smile looked disgustingly fake… At least it wasn’t as forcefully sweet as his wifes’.

Henry just nodded. If these people were who he thought, they were…

“We are here to pick up our little Ellies’ belongings” Her voice hurt his ears… He scowled at them and signed “Not yours”

Mr. and Ms. Rose looked at him with the trademark look of someone who didn’t know sign and wouldn’t accept him not talking. Henry just pointed at them and then down the hall towards the exit. “Look, son. We’re gonna leave once we have everything that belonged to our little girl” Henry felt his left eye twitch, which was a weird feeling, to have that happen but not affect his vision. He shook his head and repeated all of his signing before crossing his arms, continuing to block the way. Fake smiles turned into honest glares but if Ellies’ father thought he could intimidate him he was dead wrong. Even half-blind and with a still stinging leg he could take them both down. He did remember that he wanted to punch those two anyway…

But his reflexes had gotten a bit worse it seems, otherwise he wouldn’t get lifted off the ground by the collar of his sweater “Either you talk or you get out of our way” Oh… this guy definitely forgot that he was talking to an covert ops agent. He raised his hands to sign something before punching him in the jaw so hard he stumbled back and let Henry fall to the ground.

His bad leg made contact with the floor first and he slumped against the doorframe. That still hurt…

“You little…” the older man rubbed his jaw and made a few threatening steps back towards him. Henry just grinned. A little bit harder and he would’ve dislocated his jaw. He pulled himself upright again and repeated his sign from before. He could practically see an insult form but before anymore words or fists could be thrown there was a newcomer.

“He told you to go to hell” Henry chuckled and gave Rupert a thumbs up. He was getting better and better at sign.

Ms. Rose wasn’t the least bit impressed “Who are you?” “This doesn’t concern you”

Granted, Rupert was wearing civil clothing so there really wasn’t anything that could indicate who he was. So, he introduced himself, coldly “Sergeant Rupert Price. And this _does_ concern me since you are having an argument with my colleague” He didn’t leave them any time to react before continuing “I assume you are Mr. and Ms. Rose. In this case you have no business here. You can visit your daughters’ grave if you actually care but Ellie Rose made sure that all she owned went to her teammates. There’s nothing for you to gain here”

“We are her family. She owes us!”

“Family”, his eyes were as cold as ice “would’ve been at her funeral and wouldn’t ask for her money first”

Henry was slightly amused as he watched Ellies’ parents trying to argue with Rupert. Finally, they stomped past him, threatening to take legal actions. “If you think you can win against the government and a legally validated will” Mr. Rose glared at the raven-haired soldier one last time before rounding the corner.

The ex-thief relaxed for a moment before remembering why Rupert was here.

“Do you still want to come along?”

Henry quickly nodded before he went back inside to get his jacket and boots.

People say there are five stages of grief.

Valiant Hero had Henry stuck in the stage of denial. Maybe Charles did make it off the station. There was no proof that he was dead, they buried an empty coffin. But here… The coffins weren’t empty. He even had held Ellies’ lifeless body in his arms. There was no denial… just wishes for the possibility to change it.

Daves’ death had him and Ellie immediately in the stage of anger, while Charles and Rupert were more in denial. By now he had not much anger left. The Toppats were either dead or were rotting in jail. If they would ever make the mistake to break out, he would hunt them down, but he wouldn’t go to prison for going on a rampage. He was angry at Ellies’ parents now, as well as himself…

Bargaining? He was giving himself headaches trying to get his time- and reality-bending powers to work again. So, he could go back and change everything, no matter what he had to do… That was probably a form of bargaining.

Depression… He was probably somewhere there.

Snow crunched underneath their feet as they walked along the path between the graves, to stop in front of the three they came here for. This time the weather matched his mood a lot more than Valiant Hero had. Sky dark and cloudy, chill wind blowing. Not sunshine and ocean breeze. It was just cold…

“You know… We didn’t get them all…”

Henry just nodded. The government had been confident but almost none of the arrested or killed toppats belonged to the original clan, a few were ones that broke out of prison, back from the airship-mission. But according to the files there were still a few missing that had escaped the rocket launch…

“But the Wall has some of them now”, there was malice in his voice “Now I really hope they can keep going for a little while…” It was known that the Wall treated some of their prisoners… badly, but so far no one had managed to do something about it.

He snapped his fingers to get Rupert to look at him before signing “How?”

The raven-haired soldier chuckled darkly “Apparently not even the rest of the Toppat Clan wants anything to do with them. So, they rounded them up and dropped them off at the Wall shortly after breaking out their leader and a few other members. They told the warden where the Clan was hiding but there was no one left at that location when they got there”

So, he had been right… They just went even farther than sending a letter to Henry. “Who missing?”

“About six from the rocket launch and twelve from the Wall-break. Don’t know all names off the top of my head, Henry”

“Leader? Right hand?”

Rupert nodded “Yeah. At least the guy who was the leader when the rocket launched. Seems to be pretty upset about getting replaced. One of the guys dropped off had ‘Leader’ written on his forehead”

Henry didn’t ask how he knew all that. Usually the Wall wasn’t big on sharing information like that… He didn’t really care though. Everyone who was responsible for his friends’ deaths had been dealt with now… And he didn’t help with that at all. Hell, the rest of the toppats did more than he had, even if it was just to somewhat clear their name.

He looked down at the two graves in front of him.

They didn’t deserve this. Neither did Dave. None of them should’ve died… This wasn’t fair. Shuddering he shut his eyes to see the big screen again. It was black, ‘MISSION COMPLETE’ flickering across it from time to time, white and golden sparks springing out of the cracks. He reached out to see if the buttons would react despite the damages. Maybe it would work now. Maybe he could go back and see them again…

There was a bright flash of light and hot pain shot up his arm. White, gold, blue, red and green flashed across the screen and even leaked outside it into the void. It felt like barbed wire was wrapping around his arm and he tried to pull back, panicked and confused. Everything was flashing now, there was no way to tell where the screen ended and the void began, there was static and colors all around him. And then there were voices.

_“Good luck on your mission guys! See you on Friday!”_ Dave…

_“You’ll watch each others’ back. Don’t make me come down there…”_ Charles…

_“They’ll see what happens if you mess with our friends”_ Ellie…

_“What are you up-“ “-morrow is Christmas!” “-do you not-“ “There is-“ “How are yo-“ “-going to the-“_ Their voices were just bouncing inside his head, jumbled, impossible to understand. He was starting to feel lightheaded and stumbled backwards, away from the screen, or where the screen originally had been. The pain slowly faded away and things seemed to calm down.

When the colors faded away, he was left in frigid darkness.

Then he saw _them_. He didn’t understand how. Well, he didn’t understand why his mind was torturing him like this in the first place but… Ellie had been the only one he saw. Charles and Dave had been alive the last time he saw them. Injured, in Charles case, but alive! And no one had been allowed to see Dave, not even Rupert. Only the people who found him knew and they refused to share anything. He really hoped that his mind was playing a cruel prank on him… or that Dave had died fast and most of it happened post mortem.

He tried closing his eyes, shutting it all out, cowering and curling in on himself.

Suddenly there was a hint of warmth. Like the sun had broken through clouds. But he didn’t trust it. If he opened his eyes, he would only see those pictures again.

This was his life now. He couldn’t go back… And what or whoever gave him the power to do so in the past would punish him if he tried.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... Did I need to make a reference to the end of my Toppat-One shot? Not necessarily but I just wanted to.   
> Did I need to talk more about Daves' death? Yes. Cause I feel like I have neglected him.
> 
> Updates are going to be slower now because I have to go back to work on Monday and have another big story that I need to work on (Why did I do this to myself...?)


	4. The end of Triple Threat

Henry didn’t simply break down emotionally.

According to Dr. Vinschpinsilstien he had a seizure, which didn’t seem to be a big surprise to her. It wasn’t unusual for someone in his situation. Especially since he hadn’t gotten much sleep the past days.

Dr. V wasn’t an expert in that specific field of medicine, so Henry was sent to a neurologist to determine if he needed long-term treatment. Apparently, there was something unusual on his EEG but nothing that indicated a risk of further seizures. The doctor did recommend for him to come back in a few weeks for a second checkup though.

He had never considered that his ability would show up on an EEG. Well, he never considered the possibility that he would ever need to have his brain checked like that. He wasn’t even sure what ‘EEG’ stood for.

Rupert had been pretty shocked when it happened but didn’t change his behavior around him much, something that Henry was very grateful for.

June tried to not look as worried as she was and tried to find a few excuses to make sure that Henry got enough sleep. Like having a movie night or a sleepover where she could tell him to go to bed and see if he really did it. Or invite him to hang out or join the training during the day, so he would be tired in the evening. Training was something he should start doing anyway. Officially he was still recovering but he was expected to return to do his job some day in the next few months. Who would he be teamed up with? Even after two years there were still soldiers and agents who didn’t completely trust Ellie and him and he had never made a big effort to become friends with other covert ops agents.

He hoped the general would figure something out. Solo missions would be fine with him too. His heists had always been solo, so he had plenty of experience in working alone. Just not working alone for the government…

It wasn’t like he didn’t try. He hung out with Rupert, June, the twins and some others, trained, he even asked Quentin if he would teach him how to fly a helicopter. More accurately if he could continue where he had left of with Charles unofficially. Charles had taught him and Ellie the basics in case it would be necessary for one of them to pilot but that had happened only once, and Henry hadn’t done the best of jobs back then… He signed up for a drivers license so Ellies’ motorcycle wouldn’t just stand around and gather dust. He did all that… and it still wasn’t enough to distract him from what happened at the graveyard.

He wasn’t avoiding the place. He was visiting frequently, either alone or with June or Rupert, sometimes he ran into Charles’ parents and they talked a bit. Both graves always had flowers and candles on them now. Putting one of Charles’ spare headphones on his gravestone had crossed nobodys’ mind and Henry was glad it hadn’t.

That was something he hadn’t really done… dealing with the things he had inherited from his friends.

He had all the things Ellie had owned, including all her money and he had no idea what to do with it. He sometimes wore her scarfs but other than that… Charles hadn’t left him that many things. He had played a few of the games, alone and with June and the twins. When he was feeling cold, he did wear the hoodies, sometimes they were the only things that could warm him up. The things he had pushed away the farthest were the ones from the cardboard box.

His friends had died wearing those clothes and accessories…

One night, about three weeks after his breakdown at the graveyard he woke up shortly after midnight. Something felt wrong… It felt like someone was there, somewhere in his home. Someone who wasn’t supposed to be there. He went through the whole apartment, turned on every light and found nothing. The feeling was still there though… After turning all lights off again he went back to his room and locked the door. He didn’t know why. There was no reason. Everything was fine, right?

No… nothing was fine… He was running away. He had been afraid to close his eyes for four days after the… incident with the screen. When he finally fell asleep, he never saw it. When he purposely tried to see it, he got a splitting headache. He wasn’t over his friends’ deaths either. His life was as normal as it could be but there were two big blank spots in everything he did…

It was getting colder. The blankets couldn’t keep him warm.

“One of these times again…”

He had one hoodie in his room and sleeping in an, slightly oversized, hoodie wasn’t uncomfortable. The hoodie didn’t do much though… After contemplating it for a moment he grabbed one of Ellies’ scarfs, that he didn’t remember leaving in his room. A little bit better… Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in his head. He shut his eyes and sat down on the bed, head in his hands. It was the same kind of pain he felt when he tried to see the screen… and now the screen was suddenly in front of him again. He could still see where the cracks had been, but it looked like it was functioning again. There was something on the screen.

It showed that he had a choice. One path was leading further ahead, the other one… pointed back?

Was this a choice to go back? To a time before the mission? His head still felt like it was splitting open. What were his options?

He opened his eyes and looked up. There they were.

“Take them” “Leave them” Take Charles’ jacket and Ellies’ knife and bracelet or leave them.

There was no way of knowing how this would change anything but logically… taking them would mean he choose to be with his friends. To go back, right? He felt the slight resistance when he touched the “Take them” option, then the options disappeared, and he got up. The headache wasn’t gone but it was fading.

He had put the box in his wardrobe, the bracelet and knife on top of the jacket, alongside the headphones, but those weren’t part of the options. Thinking wasn’t necessary anymore. This was the option he chose, putting on the jacket and bracelet and just holding the sheathed knife in his hands. And then going back to bed like that. He had done stranger things in the past.

It was finally warm again.

There was still something or someone around… but it didn’t feel threatening anymore. When he closed his eyes, he could see the screen again for a moment. The path back was surrounded by flashes of red and green light. It didn’t look good… But that was what he was stuck with now.

How bad could this new timeline possibly be…?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at me... I decided to be mean and leave it at this.   
> We reached the end of this awful timeline I have created (for now. Who knows, maybe we'll go back to June and Rupert. I will miss them...)  
> Next chapter will finally start off the new timeline. With not only new characters but also new fandoms.
> 
> I have no idea when I'll get enough time to write those chapters though... This one was like a flash of inspiration and a "Write that down, write that down!" moment... So who knows.


	5. ???

A normal person would’ve been confused if they went to bed and then just found themselves standing on a sidewalk. That or they would just immediately think it was a dream.

Henry was a lot of things… and normal wasn’t one of those.

He looked around trying to determine where, and probably more importantly, when he was right now. The ground was wet and there were quite a few puddles, so it had recently rained. The sun had already gone down, but there was no clock nearby so he couldn’t tell what time it was exactly. It couldn’t be too late since there were still quite a lot of people on the streets.

He didn’t immediately recognize any of the buildings or stores…

Then he decided to check himself for any indications of where and when he was. And that was when Henry was confused.

He was still wearing Charles’ jacket and hoodie as well as Ellies’ scarf and after pushing back his left sleeve he could see that her bracelet was still there too. The only thing missing was the knife, but he was carrying a backpack so maybe it was in there. He also noticed something else. He had shrunk. At least a few inches judging by how Charles’ clothes looked on him now.

A lot of this was unusual.

Normally he wasn’t able to bring physical objects with him when he went back. And loosing a few inches in height…

He looked around for a moment and found a bus stop with a bench. With the backpack on his lap he sat down and took inventory. There was Ellies’ knife, safely tucked away. A change of clothes, a wallet with a decent amount of money, a notepad with a pen and an old mobile phone with a charger. Not a smartphone. How many _years_ did he go back? He turned on the phone and starred at the displayed date.

October 29th **2009**

Well… that explained why he was shorter now. He was seventeen again… The choice sent him back more than eleven years!

Henry decided to keep the phone in the pocket of Charles’… his jacket and closed the backpack. What was he doing at age seventeen? Why was he alone on the street at almost 10 P.M.?

A bus was approaching and, like after the choice earlier, he got up without thinking. Well, at least not thinking about what he was doing. The bus would bring him to the next city where he would find a place to sleep in a park and from there… October 29th 2009 was the day he ran away from home. He sat down in the back and looked at his phone again. There were no calls or texts asking where he was. Right. Nobody had cared about him leaving. The money he took would be earned back in less than a day and there wouldn’t be any more calls from school or the police. His parents were probably ecstatic right now.

Why did this choice send him back so far?

Robbing the bank, or vault, had started off his whole adventure that would lead him to Charles and Ellie… but he did that when he was 25. Now he had to wait eight years before breaking into the bank, escaping from prison, stealing the diamond, infiltrate the Toppat-Airship with Charles and then flee the complex with Ellie. Not to mention the whole rocket thing and all the missions as Triple Threat.

Maybe he could at least correct some small things… Maybe he could find a way to prevent Dave from getting captured by the Toppats? And maybe they shouldn’t send the rocket to the Wall… Just lock it up like they did in the Special Brovert Ops ending. The Government wouldn’t bring them to the Wall if they arrested them.

Now he was wondering what everyone else was up to right now. At least everyone around his age.

Ellie had said she got kicked out by her parents, so she was probably in a similar situation right now. Dave, Rupert, Charles and June were probably still going to school and would finish it. Sven had been a member of the Toppats since he was a kid so maybe he was already with them. He had no idea what Burt could be doing.

He had talked so rarely about the past with his friends, no matter in what timeline he was…

But that shouldn’t really matter anyway. He had to retrace his steps so he would end up on the right path, meeting any of his friends sooner than last time could ruin things completely. Going through eight years of struggle to stay alive again was worth it if he could save all of them from their horrible deaths in the future. Or at least get them in a more humane prison in the toppats’ case.

Until then he would have to go back to his criminal life. Even though he and Ellie promised to Charles they wouldn’t do that, ever. On the other hand, he would make that promise in nine years and if he remembered correctly it would be pretty difficult to get by without stealing… Especially since he didn’t pack any food.

But what about… Henry closed his eyes and concentrated. He actually didn’t remember when the choices started to show up. It was in his teenage-years and after he left home but could he do it already? Well… he could see the screen. The thing on it looked like someone had scribbled on a whiteboard, like Ellie had done before every mission. His path was forked by a choice without failure… But there would be fails after it. It looked like there had been a third path in the middle, but it was erased. That was the main reason why it looked like Triple Threats’ whiteboard plans. There was a small button on the bottom of the screen. Henry knew that there would be more in the future. They indicated that he was a level above the hub of CtM…

This ‘episode’ of his life was just titled ‘???’. How helpful… but pretty accurate.

Henry looked back up at the paths. There were two endings to this… He had to be even more careful than he initially thought. Who knew where the ‘wrong’ ending would send him? Or what would happen to him there… And what was with that erased path? He had never seen anything like that before. Not that he could do anything about it. He was stuck with this until the end of ‘???’. It was unnerving though… Someone or something had messed with the screen… With his whole ability. How else would he be able to take his friends belongings with him? They were even in the exact same state they had been in his old timeline, holes and stains on the jacket and a dent on the bracelet. But… this was actually helpful. It was almost November. It would get colder very soon and the change of clothes his teenage-self had packed wouldn’t help that much. Charles hoodie and Jacket would keep him warm. He had a weapon to defend himself. Ellies bracelet was probably still worth a decent amount of money, not that he would ever consider selling it to anyone but still… Someone made this possible and wanted him to be better prepared for it than he was the first time.

But who?

The voice after every fail had never seemed like it belonged to someone who cared about his wellbeing. Maybe he had been wrong about that.

He opened his eyes again and looked out of the window. The bus had almost reached its last stop.

It had started raining and he struggled a moment to get the hood from under his military jacket. It wasn’t a raincoat, but it helped. After getting off the bus he stayed under the little lean-to at the bus stop and watched the bus turning the next corner. At least he wouldn’t be cold and too wet now. He barely remembered his first night on the streets. While he walked past closed stores and open night clubs, he tried to recall the events. Did anything important happen that could be a choice?

It was almost 11 P.M. now. People would probably question why he was wandering around alone, so he tried his best to look like he had a definite destination. He sort of had… but for the sake of his own health he thought about if it would matter if he slept in a gazebo in the park or find a better shelter this time.

Henry was approaching an intersection when he heard someone running through the puddles shortly before they came around the corner, saw him and tried to stop, since the sidewalk was pretty narrow and there wasn’t really a way around Henry. Due to the rain the pavement was quite slippery though, and Henry was actually impressed that the other had managed to round the corner at such a fast pace without slipping.

They crashed into each other with Henrys’ back hitting the sidewalk. Good thing there wasn’t anything fragile in his backpack.

“Sorry” The other, another boy by the sound of the voice, quickly got back to his feet, clutching a brown, now a little bit squished paper bag. Henry could see a familiar logo on it, but the boy ran off before he could fully register anything. And he was a covert ops agent. Usually he was fast in things like this. He looked over his shoulder and saw the boy round another corner, leading into a dark alleyway he had just passed. He was about to get up and follow him, but another person came towards him now. A burly man, out of breath and angry.

“Where’d he go?!”

Henry had a full second to look up at the man before everything froze. There was the choice he was wondering about…

‘Sign’ or ‘Talk’?

There was a timer, but this wasn’t something he would think about a lot anyway. He was selectively mute after all. The choices disappeared when he started signing. The man glared down at him before making a dismissive and angry gesture and looked down the street. “Little rat…” he muttered before walking away to wherever he came from.

Henry finally got up again and rubbed the back of his neck under the hood. So ‘Sign’ stopped the guy from chasing the boy. What would’ve ‘Talk’ made him do? Tell where the other went? He shoved his hands in his pockets. Well… that probably was something his teenage-self would’ve done.

While walking towards the alleyway he tried to guess how this would affect his life now. He couldn’t remember if this happened the first time, and if it happened what he had done back then.

Two steps into the darkness was all he needed to know that this was not a good path to take if you wanted to run away. Henry stood still for a moment and just listened before walking forward again.

It wasn’t hard to find him. There was one dumpster and he was hiding behind it.

They just looked at each other for a moment, not seeing much of the others face since there were no lights and they both were wearing hoodies with the hoods casting shadows over their eyes. Then the boy looked at the ground and held the paper bag to his chest “Yeah… This is a dead end” So he was embarrassed about blindly running into here. “You didn’t tell that guy I ran in here?” Henry shook his head and the other chuckled “Thanks. I’m so used to people not seeing me that hiding is not really my thing…”

Henry was unsure what to do as he watched the other boy get up. They were about the same height, so maybe they were around the same age too. And he seemed to be a thief as well. Just with a way cheerier personality than Henry had at his age. He held his hand out and smiled “I’m Jack”

Seemed like he made the choice to make a new friend…

Henry raised one finger to indicate that he needed a moment before searching for the notepad and pen in his backpack. Once he had it, he wrote his name and showed it to Jack. “’Henry’… Are you mute?” First, he wanted to nod but then he sighed and wrote ‘selectively’. Really no point in lying about it.

“Oh. So you-“ Loud thunder cut him off and both boys looked up at the sky only to get a face full of bigger and heavier raindrops. “… Mind if we go somewhere a little bit drier to talk?”

He didn’t mind that at all and so the two teens left the dark alleyway and hurried down the streets towards a destination Henry didn’t know. And he had the sneaking suspicion that he screwed up majorly in his mission to retrace his steps…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I would be adding more fandoms and characters... Did someone expect this?
> 
> I am very excited about getting to Henrys' old friends in this timeline


	6. ???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for confusing people in the last chapter.  
> I hope this one explains what's up with Jack.

‘You stole Fast-Food?’

“I was hungry… And have you looked at that guy?”, Jack leaned back against the wall, slightly squished burger in hand “I practically did him a favor. Chasing me was a workout for him”

Henry just hummed in agreement. The amount of food that was in the bag was the same Charles would get for the three of them. There were probably some coupons involved. That always got people to buy more than they actually needed. Like drinks even though they already had some with them.

He somehow doubted that Jacks’ pursuer would’ve still wanted to eat the slightly squished and soggy food anyway, so he didn’t feel guilty about eating stolen chicken nuggets. It wasn’t like he didn’t have enough money on him to go to McDonalds himself, but he should probably safe that for more important things. Even if he couldn’t really think of more important things than food right now… Aside from maybe healthy food.

So far, he had gotten pretty lucky in this timeline… He got to keep his friends belongings, which would surely help him in the future, his first choice was incredibly easy due to his selective mutism and had a good outcome. His first night wasn’t spend alone or outside in the rain.

Judging by the items like books, pictures, candles and blankets that were strewn around the room, Jack had managed to break into an old furnished apartment a while ago. The kind that were shown when a potential tenant showed up. Though this building seemed to have been forgotten for quite some time. Windows were broken, the outside was covered in graffiti and the neighborhood didn’t look pleasant either… He had the sneaking suspicion that he would actually need Ellies’ knife around here…

“So… How does selective mutism work? Do you only talk to people you like?”

Right… They had been talking about that before running from the rain.

That would probably be an easy way to explain it, although not accurate. He did ‘like’ the general and June, but it took him a long time till he could talk around them and even then, it wasn’t like he could talk with Ellie and Charles. Dave was easy to talk to too. Some of the Toppats as well. Almost impossible to talk while Right hand man was in the room though, while Reginald was like the General. He couldn’t really pick consciously… There were people and situations where he simply didn’t want to talk and then there were ones where he literally couldn’t, or it took a lot of willpower.

‘Sort of’

Jack cocked his head, his hair almost looking the same as Charles’ in the candlelight. In normal lighting it was probably more of a chocolate brown and not like the pilots’ cinnamon colored hair. Maybe he should stop thinking about Charles so much… “So, you always write when you can’t talk to someone?”

Henry had to smile at his choice of words. Most people would’ve assumed it was him not _wanting_ to talk. ‘Or I use sign language’. “I know some of that!”, the brunet paused “Well… as much as most people know Italian, I guess. I had a mute friend at school, but he mostly wrote when we talked too”

Now Henry was curious. He hadn’t met many people around his age who knew ASL, back before he tried to rob the bank / vault. ‘What do you know?’

Jack had to think for a moment, maybe it had been a while since he had talked to his friend. Then he signed ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’, after a short pause he added ‘Friend’, ‘Meet’ and ‘Help’. Well, that were four more signs than Henrys’ parents knew. Or more? The other teens’ hands were still forming the ‘Help’-sign but looked like he wasn’t finished. Henry waited patiently. So far, the words weren’t anything special. Things you would use around a friend during school, maybe the ‘Help’ wasn’t something he expected but kids needed help with learning and homework. The next signs were a little bit more unusual…

‘Dead’, ‘Cold’, ‘Frost’, ‘Scared’…

“… Don’t remember any more”

Henry had the strange feeling that his eyebrows were floating above his head. Why did a teenager, who mostly conversed with his mute friend via writing, know those signs? Judging by his expression and how he pulled the hood over his head again, he probably wouldn’t answer that question…

For a while nobody said a word. The mood had definitely deteriorated, the night had gotten colder too, and Henry was thankful for having his oversized hoodie and jacket. Finally, he started write and tapped his pen against the notepad to get the others attention again. ‘Do you want to learn more?’

It wasn’t the first time Henry taught someone ASL.

Ellie and Charles wanted to learn it, even though he had no problem speaking around them, as long as Ellie didn’t ask out of the blue if she could legally marry both him and Charles at the same time. They thought it would be useful during missions if they could communicate without words.

Jack wasn’t as quick as a learner as his old friends were, but he was doing well. As long as Henry didn’t sign at his usual speed.

Living in their neighborhood wasn’t as exciting as Henry had thought it be. There were some intimidating guys, and girls, around but they mostly kept to themselves. He had no idea where they were spending their nights. They were probably keeping it a secret like he and Jack did. It probably would bring some people to their door if they knew about their quite comfortable hideout. He still had no idea how the teen had accessed the building the first time. The windows on the first floor were barred, another reason why the area seemed dangerous, and the front door was barricaded from the inside. Which was probably Jacks’ doing but still, Henry couldn’t find any damages on the front door or the relatively well-hidden back door they used to get in and out. Jack had just shrugged and said he broke the lock when he had asked him but not how he broke it. And as a former criminal Henry was very curious about that.

But the only answer he got was “broke the lock”. He decided to drop the topic. Maybe he would figure it out in the future. For now, he tried to figure out how to proceed with his life. He had chosen a different path, which wasn’t bad right now. The problems could turn up in the future. He still believed that as long as he followed the major events of his life he would end up in the right place and his choices only really mattered when he would infiltrate the airship and flee the complex… In about eight to nine years.

It was still a mystery to him why he was sent back so many years… How the screen looked was still strange too… There basically wasn’t anything that wasn’t strange.

Even hanging out with Jack led to some weird occurrences.

A few weeks after they met Henry was exploring the area on his own and ran into a group of their less friendly and peaceful neighbors. That was when the next choice popped up. And he failed it spectacularly. He chose ‘Fight’ and got killed. He chose ‘Flight’ and got run over by a truck during the following chase. The ‘Wait’-option had been surrounded by subtle red and green lights, like tiny fireflies. Maybe he should pay more attention to those… He also saw red and green lights after the choice that sent him here in the first place.

Waiting led to this…

“Hey Henry!”

Everyone looked up to see on Jack on the fire escape two storeys above them. How did he get up there? Who knew… Henry could only see how he got down, which wasn’t very elegant, and would’ve been very painful if there hadn’t been a giant stack of cardboard boxes. For whatever reason that was there.

The three young adults were a bit perplexed while Henry hurried over to pull the brunet out of the garbage. “You all right?” he still had to sign very slowly but Jack chuckled and nodded “I’m fine. What are you doing over here?”

Henry just pointed over his shoulder at the three others. They didn’t seem all that threatening anymore though… The tallest had a mixture of disgust and wariness on his face “Friend of yours, Frost…?”

“Yes”, Jack stuffed his hands in the pockets of his hoodie and smiled “Do you have a problem with him?” He sounded cheery and Henry couldn’t help but be reminded of Dave. After he had started training with Ellie he had developed that strange cheery voice that indicated danger. Well, Ellie herself had that too but it was somehow even more unnerving on the security guard. But Dave and Ellie were both at least 6,0 tall. Jack, just like Henry himself, was missing five inches to that and he still managed to somehow intimidate those guys.

Or at least most of them.

“Actually, yeah. This is our part of town, not yours”

Ah yes… the most heinous of crimes. Taking a wrong turn…

Jack shrugged “He’s new to town. We’ll just leave, problem solved”

“Nah dude… You gotta pay to get through”

Henry had to cover his mouth with his hand to hide his grin when he saw the other two literally facepalm while their friend was dead serious.

“Don’t have anything to pay you with so I guess we’ll just gonna go around you then”

Apparently that was the last straw for the guy, he probably had a bad day beforehand. But his friends were still staying behind when he decided to charge the two teens. That was worth a few questions later. For now, they ran over to the fire escape and up to the roof. The building had four floors which shouldn’t be a big problem. For Henrys’ adult body, that was used to jumping, climbing and exercise in general. He really started to hate his teenage body. Even after three weeks he was still in bad shape…

One flight of stairs beneath them their pursuer cursed and it sounded like he fell.

“Give it up!” one of his friends shouted from the ground. And that was all Henry heard before they were running across the roof, climbing over the small barricade to the next building and so on. While they were running it started to snow and Henry took it as a reason to stop and looked back. Nothing to see…

“That guy didn’t even try” Jack sighed and leaned against the nearest wall “And he looked so determined”

Henry had realized very shortly after their meeting that Jack was somewhat attention-starved… So not actually getting chased was a bit of a disappointment for him. Not as much for Henry.

He snapped his fingers to get the brunets attention “Why they call you Frost?”

“Uh…”, he started to fiddle with his sleeve and looked away when Henry raised an eyebrow at him “Weird nicknames, I guess…”

Another snap. “Bad lying”

“… I know I’m bad at it”, Jack crossed his arms “It’s just a stupid nickname from some older kids”

“Why they respect you?”

“What gave you that impression…?”

“Less aggressive after you show up”

“Probably didn’t want to mess with two people at once… Let’s just go home”

And that was the end of that conversation. For now…

It was difficult to remember the first years he spent on the streets so he couldn’t really compare his situation now to back then… but now was surely better than before.

Snow was covering the city and Christmas decorations were everywhere. Time just seemed to fly by. It was December 22nd already. And there were so many things bugging him. He still hadn’t found out why some of the other people were looking at Jack like he was something they needed to avoid at all cost. He was getting attention, the kind of attention you’d give a wild animal. Just checking where it was while slowly backing away so you wouldn’t agitate it.

Henry had also seen some people that he did remember from his past. But they weren’t where he remembered them… From afar it seemed like they still had the same attitudes. He never got any closer to ask why they suddenly were working a normal job instead of stealing. That wouldn’t be such a great idea.

It was so weird though… Everything should be the same. What reason was there for anything to change? He was just living in a different part of town (and occasionally dying due to some bad choices), what kind of impact could that have on people that never really got to know him? His head was starting to hurt from this nonsense…

“You alright, Henry?”

He should stop… “Fine” It wasn’t necessary to think about these small details. He was fine now and everything would be fine if he followed the main points of his adventures. Starting with the bank. In a few years… After that he’d go to prison and meet Rupert, Dave and Felix again. Then the Diamond to get the Governments attention. The airship with Charles and the complex with Ellie. Easy. Done it a million times before. He knew which path to take to get to his destination. But maybe he could take a little detour and go through the ‘Toppat Recruits’ ending to see how his friends in the clan were doing.

No.

He shouldn’t risk it. He didn’t know if he could go back. So far he had only been able to go back to the choice from a fail but not any farther. Henry sighed and watched the small cloud his breath created in the cold air. He remembered huddling up in a drafty hideout and now here he was, sitting in the park, relaxing in the cold. Only thanks to Charles’ clothes. It was a mystery to him how Jack was still okay with just his hoodie…

Speaking of…

He was kind of curious about where Jack had been in his Triple Threat Timeline. Henry just couldn’t remember if they had run into each other back when he was on the streets the first time. They were just a few months apart in age but-

“Henry!”

His thought process was rudely interrupted by a snowball hitting the side of his face. After wiping the snow away with his sleeve he glared over at the brunet who had already a second snowball in hand. Oh, that’s how he wanted to do this… Henry quickly dodged the second throw and grabbed some snow from the ground while ducking for cover. A couple of kids joined their fight and the older park goers seemed annoyed by the noise but they honestly couldn’t care less about them. This was the most fun Henry had ever since he came here.

It didn’t last long though.

“Sophie! D-don’t move!”

When they turned around they saw a little girl standing on the frozen lake, holding some sort of toy, while two older kids stood on the shore that was closest to her and obviously didn’t know what to do next.

There were cracks forming under her tiny feet.

Some kids from the snowball fight ran away to get help, while one of the boys at the lake carefully set foot on the ice. “I’m coming, Sophie. Stay where you are, okay?” The little girl, Sophie, was crying now. In the meantime, all kids, and Jack and Henry, had run to the lake. But what could they do? The ice was already cracking under the weight of this little child that didn’t look much older than four years. Henry himself was surely to heavy to get close enough to pull her to safety with his scarf or anything like that.

A loud crack behind him caught his attention. Jack had managed to break off a long branch from a nearby tree but that was still way to short to reach from here. Henry quickly grabbed his friends arm when he was about to walk out on the ice “Too heavy” But the brunet didn’t even look at him to see his signing. “… I can’t let her fall again…” Henry was so confused he almost spoke “Wh-“

Could he really always only watch when his friends got themselves into danger…?

The little boy had stopped midway, ice cracking under his boots as well now, and looked over at Jack. There weren’t as many cracks under his feet, maybe he had found a few thicker patches of ice. Good god, he was rivaling Charles’ stupid amount of luck right now…

Henry could faintly hear what he was saying as he held the branch out for Sophie to grab, the ice under her was still cracking. “It’s okay, it’s okay… Just don’t look down. Look at me. Grab the stick when it’s close enough and hold onto it” Sophie nodded and stretched her arms out towards the teenager. Soon she had a firm grip on the wood and Jack pulled her back towards the sturdy patch of ice he somehow found. “There we go. You’re a very brave little girl”

Henry couldn’t help but think that she was also a very stupid little girl for being out there in the first place. Before they could finally get off the ice, it broke, just not under Sophie and Jack. “Jamie!” It was the boy that went on the ice first. It looked like he tried to make his way over to the other two, which was a stupid idea. But Henry was about to run out there himself, because he would not just stand there and watch a child drown, so he didn’t have the right to call anyone stupid…

He didn’t get very far.

Jamie was suddenly thrown backwards, out of the freezing water and away from the hole. There wasn’t even a hole anymore. Ferns of frost covered the spot where it had been, as well as the one where Jamie was now sitting. Henry followed the frost patterns with his eyes the few feet to Jack and Sophie. Jack had his hand on the ice where the pattern started and Sophie looked at it with big eyes. “Pretty” The teen smiled weakly “I guess they are…” He pulled his hand back and stuffed it into the pocket of his hoodie.

Suddenly the adults where there. How far away had they all been? At least they were here now.

Jamie ran past him when Henry walked over to where Sophie and Jack stood on dry land again and hugged the little girl before scolding her about just running out on a frozen lake because of a toy. The brunet teen backed away from the two and looked at Henry and the approaching adults and children like a deer in headlights. Henry raised his hands to ask if he was okay, but he ran away before he could even start signing.

The silver-haired teen stood frozen for a moment. He had no idea what was going on. Then he quickly shook his head and started to run after his friend. He didn’t pay attention to the adults’ murmuring or to the two teenage girls he ran past. This was important. He had a choice.

‘Yell’ ‘Stay quiet’

“Interesting…”

“What?”, the slightly taller girl looked up from her phone “What did I miss?”

“Azzy… Did you really miss all of that?” her friend pointed to the little crowd at the lake and then at the running boys.

“Well… apparently. I don’t really have time to care about guys I don’t know when I have to worry about our troublemakers at home”

“They aren’t that bad”

“If we come home and they have crashed that damn helicopter you owe me 50 bucks, Ellie…”

“You owe me a date without distractions if they didn’t crash it”

“… Deal”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have now full filled our 'fall without appropriate injuries'-quota for '???'.  
> Charles is still the biggest badass out of the three of them. (Or maybe it's Jack because he's still alive. .... Probably still alive)


	7. ???

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't written about people dying for a while... Let's change that.

Henry had to hold onto a lamppost.

_Go for the silver, Henry_

This was a fail, wasn’t it?

He could see that stupid message, referencing something again probably, and everything looked greyed out. But time was still moving. People were running and yelling, cars were stopping… blood was leaking onto the sidewalk.

There was the screen too. With the map. And it looked like something was playing tug-of-war with his path. The line flicked up and down, changing color from black and gold to red and green. The message was surrounded by red and green lights too. Henry had no idea what was happening. One side wanted this to be a fail, the other wanted him to go and continue. Alone again.

No. This wasn’t just about him.

He tried to go back. At first his fingers just faced through the button, then there was a green flash. He was running again, past two blond girls, an elderly couple, some guy with his dog. Jack was faster than him. But now he knew there was more at stake here. He hadn’t spoken a single word for almost two months now. Probably more if he remembered his childhood correctly. His voice was raspy and all the running didn’t really help. At least there wasn’t much noise around them.

“Jack!” … well that wasn’t loud enough.

The parks’ exit was in sight now, the street outside was empty, but he knew it wouldn’t stay like that.

“JACK! Stop! For whatever reason you’re running, just STOP!” That seemed to be loud enough. The brunet looked back and did stop. Out on the sidewalk. There was no way Henry could pull him out of the way. He knew from experience, specifically Ellie crashing into him at full speed, that this would hurt. But another experience told him how painful getting run over by a car was, so that was more than worth it.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see the two kids that were the reason the driver had initially swiveled off the street, just to hit another kid. Crazy coincidences everywhere, huh?

Behind them he heard the car crash and when he looked back he saw that it hit the lamppost he would’ve stood at if he stayed quiet.

“That almost hit us…”

“Yeah…” Henry got back on his feet, still breathing heavy from his running, while Jack just stared at the car wide eyed. Then he looked up at the other teen “How did you…?” He didn’t get to finish his question. They, the driver and the other kids on the street were swarmed by the people from the park and the surrounding area. They got away with a few scratches and a shock, so they tried and succeeded in leaving before any emergency services could show up.

“How did you know that car was coming?”

Of course he would ask that…

“Why did you run away?”

“I asked first”

“You also did something stupid first” Henry wrapped some bandages around his hand. Again, Charles jacket had provided him with more protection than his normal clothes would’ve… Jack had only his hoodie, but that thing was apparently pretty sturdy too. Henry just decided to not be surprised by anything right now until he got an explanation. He was no stranger to unusual powers or magic. Ellie was able to somehow use the force and the two of them once fused together. Plus, he himself was capable of earth- and metal bending. He just really sucked at it. He had done quite a few crazy things, including magic, but most of them ended in him failing or even dying so he didn’t use them. “… I was wondering why the ice didn’t break under you while cracking under the little girls’ weight”

Jack rubbed the back of his head, where he had hit the asphalt. “You’re not bothered by this at all…?”

“I don’t understand why I should be. You saved those kids”, it was most likely a touchy subject but maybe he would get some answers this way “Who fell?”

It got quiet and the temperature in the room dropped. Henry remembered that the same thing happened the day they met. Sadly, he didn’t get an answer immediately. “… Who died wearing that jacket?”

Now it was Henrys’ turn to avoid eye contact. He really didn’t want to remember that particular day…

“You didn’t ask me why I got upset after signing so I didn’t ask why there are bloodstains and holes in your jacket. Or why you’re wearing a beaten up military jacket in the first place”, the brunet tugged on one of the strings of his hoodie “… If I talk, you talk”

“I seriously doubt you’d believe me…”

“What reason do you have to tell me a lie that crazy?”

No logical one… “… sounds like a fair deal” Talking so much after being silent for months really hurt. He reached for a water bottle and Jack was considerate enough to let him take a break.

“… My little sister drowned a few years ago. She was out on a lake, just like Sophie”, his hands clenched into fists “And she was only out there because I teased her and then didn’t pay attention so she snuck away to prove me wrong. She wanted to go ice skating and I didn’t. Said she couldn’t stay on her feet anyway. When I noticed she was gone she was already on the lake in the woods behind our house” Jack leaned back against the wall and pulled the hood over his head. “There was a hole in the ice… I yelled for her, wasted so much time before actually trying to see something in the water. It was so dark… but I thought I saw her. I couldn’t just let her die, so I tried to get to her”, he chuckled weakly “I never really felt the cold so I thought it would be easy, like swimming in a not frozen over lake. Turns out temperature doesn’t really matter when you’re running out of air, and breaking ice isn’t as easy as keeping it from breaking. So I almost drowned myself before I managed to find her… far too late of course…”

Henry had to think of how he and Ellie got separated and reunited just seconds before she got shot in the head…

“People already didn’t like my weird powers and then I got my sister killed… The town I’m from was rumored to have some… old fashioned folk who liked to keep their home ‘magic free’. I never believed that but… they made themselves very clear. That they didn’t want me there and since one of the rumors was that they killed a girl with the same powers as me just a few months prior… I left”, he fell silent for a long while “… Your turn”

Henry wasn’t sure how to start. Or if he should start right away at all. “… I’m sorry”

“Don’t be. I kind of deserve it for being a shitty brother…”

“…” It was probably fruitless to argue with that. He rubbed his fingers over one of the faint dark spots on the army green fabric of Charles’ jacket. “My story is… a bit complicated” Where should he even start… “I… guess I’m a time traveler of some sort. This jacket belonged to my friend, Charles. We were covert ops agents, together with another friend, her name was Ellie. Someone close to us got killed by a splinter group of a criminal organization and when we went after them we walked right into a trap and both of my friends died… A few weeks later I had the chance to go back in time and I took it, hoping to prevent all of those deaths” He bit his lip “I didn’t expect to go back so far… That never happened before. I’ll have to rob a back before I even get close to some of my friends. Escape from prison, steal a diamond and then get kidnapped by the military to infiltrate an airship. That’s where I met Charles for the first time. After getting pardoned for helping the military I’ll get myself captured by the Wall, a pretty horrible prison. Ellie and I cause a riot and escape together, get picked up by Charles and then stop a rocket from launching. And then we’ll become covert ops agents and do our jobs for two years. But this time I’ll have to do things differently so nobody gets killed. Or imprisoned in the Wall…” He still really regretted doing that… Since some of the Toppats had been his friends in other timelines. Hopefully they all managed to escape… after two years. The longer he listened to himself the crazier all of it sounded, but he already started so why stop now. “But my life is already different from the last time I was seventeen. I didn’t meet you back then so none of all of this happened”, he sighed “I don’t know why any of this is happening, I never understood. There are set paths for me but I can mess up choices that lead to failure or my death, and then I can go back to choose something else until I reach the end of that path. Then I can do it all over again. Up to the point where I escaped the Wall in various ways, with Ellie, alone, get picked up by Charles or the Toppats… dying”

He had to stop for a moment. His throat started to hurt again. Not to mention remembering being dropped into the ice cold ocean wasn’t exactly pleasant. ‘Completing the mission’ started right after that… So completely destroying the whole clan was a pretty impulsive action. It had caused the death of so many people… Just like when he exploded the space station. He did it twice after all… “Being a covert ops agent was one of many possible outcomes. It was my favorite though… After seeing one of my friends die and turning the other against me by being a horrible person, I just wanted to be with both of them. I didn’t want to risk losing them, and after a few months I couldn’t use that weird ability anymore. Until two months ago. Or in eleven years”

It was quiet, save for the wind that had started howling outside.

“… That does sound pretty crazy… Did we get run over by that car and you went back in time to fix it?”

“Not exactly… You got run over. Because I just ran after you without saying a word”, Henry raised his eyebrows “Do you just believe everything I just said?”

Jack fidgeted with the drawstrings of his hoodie “Not entirely… But it’s an explanation. And you didn’t seem to doubt me when I said a murderous cult caused me to run away from home. That’s more than I can say about my own dad…”

“Oh…” Was Charles really the only person with good parental figures…?

The brunet held out his hand “Let’s say we believe each other until proven wrong”

Henry had to grin at that “Deal”

\-- ?StD? --

“Damn… That thing is gigantic. You wanna go to the museum and see it, Burt?”

22-year-old Henry Stickmin stopped dead in his tracks and looked over to where the voice came from. There was a small group of people gathered in front of the display window of an electronics store, watching whatever was shown on the displayed TVs. He immediately found the owner of the voice. A young woman with blond hair and big blue earrings. Next to her was a man with black hair, slightly taller than her. He had his head turned to look at her, Henry could see that his eyes were yellow.

“Why? It’s just a rock…”

“It’s a giant diamond!”

Henrys brain had trouble computing what he was hearing and seeing, and Jack had to wave his hand in front of his friends eyes. “Henry? You okay?”

This didn’t really make sense. Burt and Earrings had been Toppats since their late teenage years. They both were 22 or 23 now, but they didn’t look like their Toppat-selves. Earrings’ hair was long and braided, her clothes were a wild mix of colors instead of teal and grey. Burts’ hair was slightly longer too and there was more blue and green in his outfit. And both of them were missing their top hats, and headset in Burts’ case.

… giant diamond?!

He ran up to the window to see for himself.

There it was… The Tunisian Diamond. Displayed in the museum. **Three years earlier**.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... No. I didn't have enough plot to fill five years...
> 
> I also find it fascinating how 'Ellie' caught someones attention but nobody seemed to notice that we were actually fairly close to Charles in the last chapter. The Charles we are looking for.


End file.
